Paris (AFP)

On August 19, 2009, on the blue run of Berlin, the planet track and field sees the comet Caster Semenya: the South African, aged 18, still unknown six months ago, crushes the final of the Worlds over 800 m, won with close 15 meters ahead of its competitors.

The muscular physique of the young woman challenges. Just hours before the final, the International Athletics Federation (IAAF) announced to investigate the sex of Caster Semenya.

"We contacted the people of the South African Federation (ASA) to find out if they had any documents to establish their sex (...) This is a matter we take seriously," said the door. Nick Davies.

After the race won in a super fast time (1: 55.45), Caster Semenya is exempted from a press conference: "She is not prepared to answer the questions that you are entitled to ask him", justifies the secretary general of the IAAF Pierre Weiss.

"If at the end of these investigations it appears that it is not a woman, we will remove the list of winners," he slice to the press.

- "Femininity test" -

At the center of attention, Caster Semenya has just experienced "the strongest and most humiliating experience of [her] life," as she will explain in 2019 before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), seized by the South African to challenge the new IAAF Hyperandrogen Athlete Rules, which came into effect on May 8th.

And it is not only scrutinized by millions of viewers: it has already been examined in its privacy.

Prior to the World Championships, the South African Federation had dispatched, at the request of the IAAF, a gynecologist for a blood test and examination of the athlete's genitals. Caster Semenya assures that she did not know then the objective of this examination: "a test of femininity".

After her demonstration at the Worlds, the IAAF leads the South African to a German hospital for another test of femininity. "It was an IAAF order that I could not discuss," she says.

In front of the CAS, Semenya describes "the deep shock caused by the public exhibition of her body (...) she was overwhelmed by the events and the fact that her gender was challenged for the first time in her life".

The IAAF tells her that if she wants to continue the competition, she needs to lower her testosterone level with a treatment. She accepts.

- "Laboratory Rat" -

From the beginning of treatment in January 2010, the South African remains suspended six months and resumes the competition in July 2010.

In front of the CAS, Caster Semenya describes the side effects of the drugs and the negative effects of the lowering of the testosterone rate: fever, perspiration, weight gain, nausea and recurrent abdominal pains. A state that has had a "huge" impact on her well-being and trust, she says.

To monitor her testosterone levels she has to undergo two blood tests a month, in addition to unannounced tests from the IAAF, which she now accuses of having used as a "laboratory rat" .

Between 2010 and 2012, the athlete's lap times slightly, which she attributes to the negative effects of the treatment. She still retains her title of world champion in 2011 with a fast time (1: 56.35) and finished 2nd of the London Games in 2012 (1: 57.23). She will recover the gold medal following the disqualification for doping of the Russian Mariya Savinova.

Between 2013 and 2015 her performance drops, according to her, because of weight gain and a knee injury.

In July 2015, TAS broke the first IAAF Hyperandrogen Women's Rule set in 2011, on the call of Indian sprinter Dutee Chand. Caster Semenya stops the treatment. She swears today that she will never take it back.

? 2019 AFP